Introducing InterNations, the world’s largest online community for expats

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• Adam W says:

  22 Jun22 June 04:50

  Given the post on 21st March 2014, perhaps it’d be more appropriate to title the article: “Introducing Internations Again”.

  • Andy says:

    22 Jun22 June 06:33

    was wondering where I had heard of the them before 😉

  • Jane says:

    23 Jun23 June 05:38

    Just got acceptance email from Internations. They are NOT free to join. Cheapest is £4.95 p/m 12 month contract. All it has shown me are some generic pictures of social and arts. Would be nice to see some testimonials from people who are current members in my host country before signing up. Has anyone had any experience of Internations?

• Boi says:

  22 Jun22 June 06:48

  Wonder why it is re-introduced?

  • John says:

    22 Jun22 June 08:13

    Probably another paid advert

    • Head for Points says:

      22 Jun22 June 08:24

      It is filler! I have been away in Germany all weekend (as you may have seen from my Twitter pic of the ludicrous immigration queue at T5 last night) and was struggling for a third piece today. I was up well past midnight getting the LAN piece together.

      However, InterNations has been chasing me about re-running the piece so it keeps everyone happy.

      • Alan says:

        22 Jun22 June 09:44

        Hadn’t seen the Twitter pic, but I never cease the be amazed at the shock that UK immigration seem to have that planeloads of people may all need to pass through immigration – despite them knowing nice and far in advance when these planes will be arriving… 😉

        • James67 says:

          22 Jun22 June 10:05

          Who actually pays for immigration service: border agency itself or does the airport have to pay for them? Ultimately I guess us passengers are footing the bill but it is just one of a number of increasingly ludicrous things about aviation industry that needs urgent multinational regulatory action, minimum standard of seat width and pitch being another.

        • Mr(s) Entitled says:

          22 Jun22 June 10:45

          LHR seems to be surprised when every plane that said it was turning up does so and then they have to find somewhere to stack/put them. The fact that these planes will then have people on them requires a leap in logic that is too far.

        • Worzel says:

          22 Jun22 June 10:52

          Unfair!

        • Rob says:

          22 Jun22 June 11:28

          Me too – it must be a dream as an operational model.

          Imagine if you could run a retail store where you knew exactly how many customers would walk through your door weeks in advance. You would have the most incredibly efficient staffing patterns !

          Given the immigration authorities do know this I only conclude that they think it is acceptable to have massive queues and have designed the system accordingly.

        • bob says:

          22 Jun22 June 21:07

          You wouldn’t know when problem cases (=slower to process) would turn up

      • The_Real_A says:

        22 Jun22 June 10:19

        Can anyone explain why there are just 5 automated gates at T5 arrivals? Five…

        Some Germans behind me last week were concerned they had mistakenly landed in some banana republic.

        • gnarlyoldgoatdude says:

          22 Jun22 June 13:35

          Largest per capita consumers of bananas in Europe.

        • Worzel says:

          22 Jun22 June 16:15

          gnarlyoldgoatdude:

          Given the information you’ve put forward; and an experience that we had at LHR, I’d expect the Germans to have been well ahead of The _Real_A on the track! 🙂 .

      • Paul says:

        22 Jun22 June 19:45

        why not have a piece on the immigration debacle at T5. It’s always deeply embarrassing to come home and find these queues. I despair that children cannot be processed by the bone idle immigration officer/s that monitor the e gates. My kids pay almost double the price of a adult passport as they are valid for 5 years and yet we all have to stand an wait shuffling through tenser city looking like shackled inmates at some US penitentiary. I absolutely hate UK immigration which in my opinion rates as one of the worlds worst in terms of service, speed and efficiency. I cannot imagine what it must be like to non white, non European as the attitude to UK nationals simply stinks.

        • bob says:

          22 Jun22 June 19:47

          non white, non European seem to get through faster

        • Rob says:

          22 Jun22 June 20:13

          To be honest I rarely have a bad time, last night was bad timing. My issue is that the standard line is now effectively the family line ( kids cannot use egates) so should be fully manned.

        • bob says:

          22 Jun22 June 20:27

          same here (kids)

          we have copied a few Europeans on our flights and ‘mistakenly’ gone to the mostly empty non-EU desks a few times, they don’t care and just process you, on you go

          my advice is to choose the shortest queue

        • bob says:

          22 Jun22 June 20:30

          it’s a bit like that at Eurotunnel

          we just ignore the queuing system so if we arrive early, we hide our ticket/ time and drive on to an earlier train, they also don’t care and you can generally go much earlier than your allotted time

        • JB says:

          26 Jun26 June 20:35

          In immigration line at Heathrow terminal 5 now (8:30 pm Friday night) and it is easily three times as crowded as the busiest I have ever seen before today. Does anyone know if this is a recent issue or a Friday night deal or something else??

      • Brian says:

        22 Jun22 June 21:37

        You could have covered the Accor sale which is on (apologies if you already have!), featuring 40% off and free breakfast. Much better than the IHG sale, which you did cover…

• Trevor says:

  22 Jun22 June 08:28

  Despite it showing up twice in a search, the old heading lands on this page, so I can’t even see if I made a previous comment about it. So, at the risk of repeating myself…:

  I have been a member for a number of years and made good use of the events organised in Brussels which were fun and in venues that facilitated meeting people and being able to talk. Unfortunately the London events are held in the latest loud and trendy clubs, only reserved for short periods and are certainly far less conducive to conversation, plus drinks prices in these venues are ridiculous, so I don’t recommend it here. I have complained a number of times and been ignored always, despite emails supposedly from the owner or whoever asking why I am no longer active.

  Also, the organise events cost money, so while free to join, if you are going to attend any events, you will pay more than the 1st free drink is worth. You can pay a membership fee to be a Albatross member – can’t recall how much, but that gets you into the functions free.

  Finally, as a free member, you can only send something like 5 messages per month, so very restrictive to take part in the community and hence paid membership is really required to get decent benefit.

  • Peter says:

    22 Jun22 June 08:53

    They changed the messaging restriction last year so it is not restrictive for basic members anymore.

  • Greg Wesson says:

    22 Jun22 June 11:47

    I agree with you on the large events in London, they are too large and noisy. However, there are a number of the smaller groups which put on events that are quite good, so I would recommend that if you are interested in joining Internations, make sure you check out the special interest groups and go to those events. Much more fulfilling than the large socials.

• Robbie says:

  22 Jun22 June 11:44

  I absolutely abhor that website for one simple reason. Try to unsubscribe from their spam emails / cancel your account. It’s borderline impossible without sending the A-Team around to rough them up. I signed up (mistakenly, as I was recommended to the site by a colleague who was also an expat) a few years ago and haven’t been able to get rid of the damn thing since.

  • gnarlyoldgoatdude says:

    22 Jun22 June 13:37

    This.

    Having paid my fee, I’ve had no benefit from my membership.
    My fault….I didn’t research it enough.

    At least Raffles got a bit of recognition for my click-through.

  • Adam W says:

    22 Jun22 June 14:00

    Pretty much exactly sums up my experience with them too, unfortunately.

• Ricky says:

  22 Jun22 June 17:52

  After just moving to Canada, I began to use Internations…. After one event I realised for me it was a waste of time. Why would I move to Canada to meet Russians, Brazilians and other Brits? No locals go to these where I live so unfortunately its a pointless forum. Nice idea just not for me.

• ee says:

  22 Jun22 June 18:19

  What time was this at T5? We’re due in about 930pm this coming Sunday. How long are we likely going to need to wait on UK passports?

• Mr(s) Entitled says:

  22 Jun22 June 22:26

  +1 Very good forums

• hmmnotsomuch says:

  24 Jun24 June 15:24

  Internations… is not free. Seriously Raffles surely you can do better than this?!

  • Peter says:

    25 Jun25 June 13:28

    InterNations is for free. I’m a member and don’t pay…

    • bob says:

      26 Jun26 June 20:50

      I’m not a member & it’s free for me

      • bob says:

        26 Jun26 June 21:03

        well I might be a member on occasion 🙂

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